One down, two to go.
Dean of Medical Education and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Dr. Edward Holmes has hired Gordon Williams to be the Vice Dean of the Medical School for Administration and Finance.
Williams is the first of the three new Vice Deans that Holmes expects to hire before July 1.
Search committees for the other two positions, vice dean for faculty and academic affairs and vice dean for education, are still in the process of receiving applications.
Williams will assume his Medical Center post May 1, after he steps down from his current post at the Medical School at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
At Northwestern, he serves as chief operating officer for the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation and associate dean for clinical practice affairs.
No search committee was formed for this position.
According to Williams, Holmes contacted him and suggested he consider the job.
Williams cited his "good working relationship" with Holmes as a key reason for accepting the position.
"I was not looking to leave Northwestern," he added. "[This was] too good an offer to turn down."
Williams will be in charge of the administrative organization of the Medical School.
"My responsibility is to make sure there is an infrastructure for the other deans to work [with]..., an infrastructure that will allow them to be successful," he said.
Williams received a degree in Zoology from the University of Iowa in 1968. Since then, he has served in the Air Force and worked at the Veterans Administration.
He was the senior president for academic health and clinical affairs in the University of Pennsylvania Health System and a vice president of its Medical Center.
One of Williams' goals is to bring Duke's School of Medicine back into the "top five."
He said that Penn was in a similar position as Duke when he was there with Holmes a number of years ago.
Williams said he and Holmes created a system there that fostered the medical school's improvements.
Holmes is out of the country and could not be reached for comment. In a Feb. 3, 1999 article in The Chronicle, Holmes said that the three vice dean positions will report to him and help implement his vision for the School of Medicine.
Holmes has been emphasizing the need to integrate the School of Medicine with other professional schools.
Dr. David Nohrwold, president of the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, praised Williams' executive and organizational skills.
"Gordon Williams is a very able and forward thinking executive who has had experience in several great universities, and has moved forward the agendas of medical schools, faulty practices and university medical centers," Nohrwold said. "He is an expert at organization. He has reorganized our structure, brought in talented people into our organizations and has gotten them to work as a unit."
Liana Rose contributed to this story.
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